


as the sun rises

by conchorde



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Heist, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, One Shot, Sammy Stevens with a criminal past?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-05-30 08:20:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15092861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conchorde/pseuds/conchorde
Summary: Before King Falls, before the first radio show in the big city, things weren't always the best for Sammy and Jack.[Or; in which Sammy Steven's criminal past gets the backstory it deserves.]





	as the sun rises

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Partners in Crime](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14908929) by [HaylWritesIGuess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaylWritesIGuess/pseuds/HaylWritesIGuess). 



> My good friend wrote a glorious fic about Sammy and Ben committing a heist. I needed more backstory; she told me to write it myself.

The morning after the heist and the subsequent drama of Pete storming into the library, demanding that the map be returned to its rightful owner (Emily let him know it had been an "anonymous donation from a very generous member of the community" and he "couldn't very well take someone else's property, Pete."), Sammy and Ben slid into their favorite booth at Rose's. The sun was just coming up as Rose herself set down some coffee in front of the late-night radio hosts.

Sammy sighed. "Ben, how many times do I need to tell you, don't drink coffee at breakfast! For God's sake, we've been up all night."

"I know, but haven't been able to stop thinking about our heist," Ben said, pouring an obscene amount of sugar into his cup. "We were like pros at that, Sammy!"

"One, that's disgusting--four sugar packets? And two, I'm gonna shut you down right there. I'm not going to go rob all of King Falls with you. So stop writing another notebook or whatever you're doing."

"Well, I was the pro," Ben continued, ignoring Sammy. "You helped. I guess."

"Sure, like you would have gotten out of that trap all by yourself?" Sammy shot back. "Wasn't it a little...tall for you?"

Ben set down the fifth sugar packet. "Ouch, Shotgun. Bringing out the short jokes at breakfast?"

"Point taken. Sorry." Sammy sighed for the second time. He could never just have a quiet morning after the show, could he? Not with Ben Arnold around.

"So, what do you say?" Ben said, wrapping his hands around the mug of ridiculously sugary coffee. "Shotgun and Arnold, taking on the town? Just like the good old days for Sammy Stevens, man with mysterious criminal past."

"Goddammnit, Ben." Sammy rubbed a hand over his face. He could practically feel the gray hair coming in. "There were never any 'good old days', all right? Just drop it."

"Sammy," Ben practically pleaded. Shit, he was going to break out the puppy dog eyes, wasn't he? "You can't just drop that you know how to hack a security alarm to your best friend and not say anything."

"Keep your voice down," Sammy said, throwing a quick glance around the diner. "And yes, I can and I will. So drop it."

Ben made a humph noise. "I guess I'll just have to ask our listeners what they think about it. On air. Tomorrow." 

Yep. Four new gray hairs. "Really, Ben?"

"Yes, really! You don't just get to shut me out, man. Not this time. Not again." Ben paused, pressing his lips together tightly. His knuckles whitened on the coffee cup. "You're my best friend, Sammy. If you can't trust me to tell all about your criminal past, then who can you trust? C'mon. Please?"

"And what if I don't want to talk about it?" Sammy said tightly, looking away from Ben's pleading face. That sunrise really was something.

Ben's words came out in a rush. "I'll tell you where I got the lockpicks if you tell me a tiny bit about your criminal past."

Sammy couldn't help but crack the smallest of smiles. "Fine. A tiny bit about my, as you put it, 'criminal past'." 

Ben dropped his coffee cup with a loud rattle. "I--Sammy, seriously? Really?"

Sammy shrugged. "Sure, why not." He leaned back in the booth, savoring the last moments he had of keeping his past his own. "I'm sure the statute of limitations has run out for most of them," he said, just to see Ben squirm a little. "What do you want to know?"

"Statute of limitations? Most of them?" Ben practically threw his hands in the air. "Um, everything? I want to know every last detail of my best friend's criminal past!"

Sammy sighed for a third time that breakfast. Of course Ben wanted to know it all. Cronkite, Brokaw, Ben Arnold; through and through.

Screw it, he thought, taking a long drink from his coffee mug before he began. Ben wasn't going to let him sleep after this anyway. "It started out small. Little things, like some chips from the gas station, or a bottle of shampoo."

"Oh. My. God," Ben interrupted. "My best friend is a kleptomaniac."

Sammy laughed. It was a hollow sound, and they both knew it. "Things weren't always the best for me and Jack. Before we got our show on the radio, well...the big city is expensive. Jack's car payments were expensive. We were paying twice as much for one shitty studio apartment as I do right now for mine in King Falls, and we were barely making rent."

Ben looked dumbfounded. "Couldn't you ask your family for help or something? I'm sure-"

Sammy shot a hard look at him. "No. My parents are nothing like your mom, Ben. They haven't talked to me since college. Not since they found out."

"Shit, man," Ben said, struggling for words.

"It's fine," Sammy replied shortly. That story was too much for one breakfast. "Only Lily knew about me and Jack, and I intended to keep it that way."

"Sammy--"

God, he did not want to talk about his parents. "I said it's fine, Ben!”

Ben sobered up at Sammy's outburst. "I--okay, Sammy. I'm sorry I asked."

Ben was looking at him the same way he had the same night Frickard played his terrible ad, like he just wanted to hug Sammy for all eternity. Sammy stared at the wood of the table instead of meeting Ben's eyes. The table was ringed with water marks, he noted absently.

"So Jack had this idea one month, because he was--is an impulsive bastard," Sammy continued hesitantly, still not looking at Ben. "Kind of like you, Ben."

"Hey," Ben protested, trying to lighten the mood.

Sammy swallowed. "Jack had already been stealing from the grocery store for weeks when he suggested that we actually break in somewhere. Take something of value to pawn off. It was borrowing, he said, if we paid them back later."

Sammy heard Ben's intake of breath. "So that's why you wanted to return the map."

Ignoring him, Sammy continued. "So we did our research and broke into this guy's house a couple of towns over. Took a couple things he probably wouldn't miss, wrote his address down to mail him the cost of the items when we could pay him back, and left."

Sammy glanced up at Ben, who was staring at him with rapt attention. He wasn't touching his coffee. "It was a terrible solution but goddammnit, Ben, I was good at it."

"Sammy, I'm so sorry--"

He cut Ben off. "We made our rent that month, and the month after because we kept going to different places. Week after week. I'm pretty sure we made the local paper," he joked quietly.

Ben wasn't laughing. "You didn't have to tell me all this, Sammy. I thought you were...happy before you came to King Falls. Not that you're not happy now, but you know. You were with Jack."

Sammy chose to ignore that second outburst. "When we finally got the show on air, I made sure we mailed a check back to each place we went for the exact cost of the item. Hell, I even threw in a tip," Sammy finished. "So yeah, Ben, it wasn't the 'good old days'. I meant what I said when I told you there was nothing left for me outside of King Falls. Now that Jack's gone, I'm not sure there's even anything left for me here.”

Ben reached out across the table to take Sammy's wrist. It was probably the closest he could come to hugging Sammy without full on tackling him across the table. "I'm here, Sammy. Troy, Emily, the whole town. We're here for you," Ben said firmly. "We--we'll get Jack back, Sammy, even if I have to heist him out of the void myself."

Sammy chuckled at that, but Ben pressed on. "I swear to you, Sammy. I'll get him back. Though I could use your heisting skills, probably. Maybe there's some alarms in the void you need to dismantle for me."

Sammy cleared his throat, ignoring the stinging in his eyes. "All right, so now you know all about my 'criminal past'. When do I get to hear about those lockpicks?"

Ben flushed. “I thought you forgot about that."

"Not a chance, Ben."

"Um," Ben began, anxiously running a hand through his hair. "My mom may have bought them for me? Back in tenth grade when I was trying to be cool?"

“I can’t believe your mother gave you lockpicking tools.”

Ben looked immensely uncomfortable. “I may have told her it was for a play?”

“Oh my God, Ben. You’re a theater nerd. I don't think knowing how to pick locks will make you any more cool than being in Grease, though. That's the pinnacle of coolness."

"Low blow, man. That still hurts."

Sammy laughed, a deep laugh, the way he hadn't laughed since Jack left. King Falls might not have been his home, but it felt like it, sometimes, in the booth at Rose's. When he was drinking coffee (and regretting the caffeine with every sip) with his best friend as the sun rose.


End file.
